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Friday, August 12, 2016

Boxed!

Ever notice how we're stuck with choosing between two cesspools. Government of the people, by the people, blah blah, we're stuck, at least for now.

If you're pro-life, you're stuck with the big-business candidate who favors the wealthy and is opposed to healthcare. You can't vote pro-life and pro-health and pro-education at the same time.

If you're pro-equality and anti-poverty, you're stuck with the big-government candidate and with trade policies favoring the wealthy. You can't vote to address economic inequality without endorsing massive indebtedness for your grandchildren at the same time.

If you're looking deeper than the tv screen, you know some government policies do more harm than good, but neither cesspool is getting pumped out and cleaned up any time soon.

Pick your cesspool. Our largest political parties along with the media have polarized the nation and limited the debate to just two sides, ignoring the fact that there are more positions of significance than just the two we're offered. It simplifies their job, of course. All they have to do is keep us fighting the two-sided battle.

We're boxed, and without a venue for a real public forum. The next decades will be a blast. Only figuratively, we hope.

Among the issues, most of which will not be addressed:

big pharma price gouging because by rule, they can

med costs skyrocketing because by rule, insurance must pay it

college costs up 800% since govt instituted student loans

economic inequality booming; the richest 10% got 98% of economic gains for the last 40 years.

the financial industry continues to clobber the world without accountability.

And the list goes on. It's not a comfortable world for people of faith, nor are the problems we face simple, one-sentence issues. If our hope is built on government, we're likely to be disappointed.

In the meantime, there are many things we might do, are there not?"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." — Noam Chomsky, American Linguist and US Media and Foreign Policy critic. Is he right?